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Ukraine movement a ‘Maidan of dignity’, says bishop

25/01/2014

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(Vatican Radio) The protests in an increasing number of public squares across Ukraine
are more about a growing people’s movement than plain political expression, says a
Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop.

While the media is reporting that the ongoing
protests are motivated by the Ukrainian government’s refusal to sign an agreement
that would have steered Ukraine towards Europe, Bishop Borys Gudziak says the story
“has a much broader context and a much deeper quality.”

The Maidan movement
is a reaction against the general atmosphere of fear and intimidation in Ukraine and
against wanton corruption in the country, he said. It is a movement of principle and
dignity, with spiritual expression.

“The people are morally exhausted,” he
told Vatican Radio. “So… what began as a Euro-Maidan movement…is really now a Maidan
of dignity, a Maidan of citizens recognizing something that is rather transcendental
and that is fundamentally spiritual— that every person is created in dignity in the
image and likeness of God.”

Listen to the full interview with Bishop
Borys Gudziak:

Bishop Gudziak heads the Ukrainian Greek Catholic eparchy
of France, Belgium and Luxembourg. He also serves as president of the Ukrainian Catholic
University in Lviv.

“After 20-odd years of independence, Ukraine is maybe
halfway on the pilgrimage from the land of captivity to the promised land,” he said,
as many aspects of the former totalitarian regime are only slowly being pushed aside.
“Dropping the cloak of slavery is not easy.”

Protest leaders include many from
the Ukrainian middle class; about two-thirds of protesters have university degrees,
he said.

The clergy from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the various
Orthodox churches, the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant communities, as well as
Jewish and Muslim clerics, have joined protesters seeking to minister to their spiritual
needs.

“Basically, the churches have come to where the people have asked them
to be,” said the bishop.

The religious presence in the main Independence Square
in Kiev is obvious. Acting in accord, the churches hold ecumenical prayer on Sundays
at noon. And throughout the night, when fear of violence is greatest, prayer is led
from the main stage on the hour every hour, said the bishop. Religious services are
held and “ecclesial tents” are set up in the square, where people can pray quietly
before an icon, access the sacrament of confession and spiritual guidance.

“The
Church, following the basic insight expressed by Pope Francis, is trying to make sure
that the pastors have the smell of the sheep,” he stated.

In early January,
the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture sent a letter to the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian
Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, stating that the Church’s
involvement in the protest could lead to a revocation of its legal status.

“That
is a very serious threat expressed to a Church that for much of the 20th
century, by the powers that be, was outlawed,” Bishop Gudziak said .

From
1945 to 1989, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was the biggest illegal Church in
the world and the biggest body of resistance in the Soviet Union, he stated. It did
not collaborate with the regime; as a result, by 1945, all of its bishops were imprisoned.

“Because of its free and dignified stance in the Soviet times, it emerged
into the period of Ukrainian independence with unique moral authority,” he explained.
Today, the Church exerts a very big influence on issues of freedom, dignity, justice,
and equality before the law.

“The Church speaks about these principles because
they are the principles of our Saviour,” Bishop Gudziak said.

He commented
on how numerous protesters are being beaten and harassed and how many students of
the Ukrainian Catholic University have been intimidated by calls from the police and
the secret service.

“One must realize that in a country where so many people
were killed, so many people were sent to Siberia, so many people were spied on, a
call from the secret service to the students' personal cell phone is a very invasive
action that creates great trepidation and insecurity,” he said.

“The fear
in Ukraine is only skin deep,” he continued, “and you scratch the surface and it pops
out. Because the system killed systematically, people are afraid of the system. This
movement of the Maidan is actually a response to this fear.”

The bishop called
for prayers for peace and for conversion in Ukraine. He also urged people to become
informed about the “real-life story” that is developing there, to understand the importance
of Ukraine in Europe’s geopolitics. He called for people to express their solidarity
with the Ukrainian protesters by writing letters and appealing to political leaders.

“This experience of the 20th century, in which people of faith
and other people of good will stood up to the greatest human challenge, the challenge
of totalitarianism, this school of faith has much to offer to western Europe and to
the broader international and ecclesial community,” he said.

“I think Ukraine
and the Church in Ukraine has a great responsibility to share this story,” he concluded.
“Today, this Church is growing and I am convinced that it has a vocation to help the
universal Church in ways that are still unknown.”